APPROACHES

TO TRAINING
NEEDS
NEED ASSESSMENT
 A training need exists when an employee
lacks the knowledge or skill to perform an
assigned task satisfactorily. It arises when
there is a variation between what the
employee is expected to do on the job and
what the actual job performance is.”
 SURVEY
 Survey the potential trainees to identify
specific topics about which they want to
learn more.
 It suggests that trainees are more likely to be
receptive to the resulting programs when
they are viewed as relevant.
 The group’s expertise may be tapped through
a group discussion, a questionnaire, the
Delphi procedure, or a nominal group
meeting.
 GROUP RECOMMENDATION
 Group discussion:
 Resembles face-to-face interview technique,
e.g., structured or unstructured, formal or
informal, or somewhere in between.
 Can be focused on job (role) analysis, group
problem analysis, group goal setting, or any
number of group tasks or themes (e.g.,
“leadership training needs of the board”).
 Uses one or several of the familiar group
facilitating techniques: brainstorming, nominal
group process, force fields, consensus ranking,
organizational mirroring, simulation, and
sculpting.
 ADVANTAGES
 Permits on-the-spot synthesis of different
viewpoints.
 Builds support for the particular service
response that is ultimately decided on.
 Decreases client’s “dependence response”
toward the service provider since data
analysis is (or can be) a shared function.
 Helps participants to become better problem
analysts, better listeners, etc.
 DISADVANTAGES
 Is time consuming (therefore, initially
expensive) both for the consultant and the
agency.

 Can produce data that are difficult to

synthesize and quantify (more a problem
with the less structured techniques.
 Questionnaire:
 May be in the form of surveys or polls of a
random or stratified sample of respondents, or
an enumeration of an entire “population”
ranking.
 Can use a variety of question formats: open-
ended, forced-choice, priority -ranking.
 May be self-administered (by mail) under
controlled or uncontrolled conditions, or may
require the presence of an interpreter or
assistant.
 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
 Can reach a large number of people in a short
time.
 Are relatively inexpensive.

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 Make little provision for free expression of
unanticipated responses.
 Require substantial time (and technical skills,
especially in survey model) for development of
effective instruments.
 Suffer low return rates (mailed), grudging
responses, or unintended and/or inappropriate
respondents
 TASK IDENTIFICATION
 Evaluating the job description to identify the
salient tasks the job requires. Once trainers
have an understanding of those tasks,
specific plans are developed to provide the
necessary training.
 HR WEAKNESSES
 HR may find the weaknesses among HR
activities, includes inappropriate placement,
orientation, selection, or recruiting may lead
to workers with deficiencies.
 Errors in these activities may stem from
weaknesses in HR planning, job design, or
the HR information system.
 Training and development may be needed to
increase the workers’ performance and it
may modify other activities to ensure a
better fit between people and performance.
OTHER SOURCES OF
INFORMATION
 Reviewing other sources of information
 Includes different reports, e.g. production
records, quality control reports, grievances,
safety reports, absenteeism and turnover
statistics, and exit interviews of departing
employees
 May reveal problems that should be
addressed through training and development
efforts.
 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
 Readily available
 Provide objective evidence of the results of
problems within the agency or group.
 Can be collected with a minimum of effort and
interruption of workflow since it already exists
at the work site
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 Carry perspective that generally reflects the
past situation rather than the current one (or
recent changes).
 Need a skilled data analyst if clear patterns and
trends are to emerge from such technical and
diffuse raw data.
 SUPERVISORS
 Observe employees on daily basis.
 Supervisors may recommend an employee for
training and development as reward good
employees.
 Self-nominations:
 Employees are asked to nominate themselves
for training and development programs
where they want the differences in between
their expected skills, knowledge and abilities
and actual.
4 STEPS TO CONDUCTING A NEEDS
ASSESSMENT
 Step 1. PERFORM A "GAP" ANALYSIS.
 check the actual performance of our
organizations and our people against existing
standards, or to set new standards
 Current situation: We must determine the
current state of skills, knowledge, and
abilities of our current and/or future
employees. This analysis also should examine
our organizational goals, climate, and
internal and external constraints.
 Desired or necessary situation: We must
identify the desired or necessary conditions
for organizational and personal success. This
analysis focuses on the necessary job
tasks/standards, as well as the skills,
knowledge, and abilities needed to
accomplish these successfully. It is important
that we identify the critical tasks necessary,
and not just observe our current practices.
We also must distinguish our actual needs
from our perceived needs, our wants.

 The difference the "gap" between the current and the

necessary will identify our needs, purposes, and
objectives.
 Step 2. IDENTIFY PRIORITIES & IMPORTANCE
 The first step should have produced a large
list of needs for training and
development, career development,
organization development, and/or other
interventions. Now we must examine these in
view of their importance to our
organizational goals, realities, and
constraints. We must determine if the
identified needs are real, if they are worth
addressing, and specify their importance and
urgency in view of our organizational needs
and requirements
 Cost-effectiveness: How does the cost of the
problem compare to the cost of implementing a
solution? In other words, we perform a cost-
benefit analysis.
 Legal mandates: Are there laws requiring a
solution? (For example, safety or regulatory
compliance.)
 Executive pressure: Does top management expect
a solution?
 Population: Are many people or key people
involved?
 Customers: What influence is generated by
customer specifications and expectations?
 If some of our needs are of relatively low
importance, we would do better to devote
our energies to addressing other human
performance problems with greater impact
and greater value.
 Step 3. IDENTIFY CAUSES OF PERFORMANCE
PROBLEMS AND/OR OPPORTUNITIES.
 Now that we have prioritized and focused on
critical organizational and personal needs, we
will next identify specific problem areas and
opportunities in our organization. We must
know what our performance requirements are,
if appropriate solutions are to be applied. We
should ask two questions for every identified
need:
 Are our people doing their jobs effectively?
 Do they know how to do their jobs?
 Step 4. IDENTIFY POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS AND
GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES.
 If people are doing their jobs effectively,
perhaps we should leave well enough alone.
("If it ain't broke, don't fix it.") However, some
training and/or other interventions might be
called for if sufficient importance is attached
to moving our people and their performance
into new directions.
 But if our people ARE NOT doing their jobs
effectively:
 Training may be the solution, IF there is a
knowledge problem.
 Organization development activities may provide
solutions when the problem is not based on a lack
of knowledge and is primarily associated with
systematic change. These interventions might
include strategic planning, organization
restructuring, performance management and/or
effective team building.
 We will look at these solutions
including training &
development and organization development,
in future articles in this series.
TECHNIQUES FOR INVESTIGATING
ORGANIZATIONAL AND PERSONAL NEEDS
 Direct observation
 Questionnaires
 Consultation with persons in key positions,
and/or with specific knowledge
 Review of relevant literature
 Interviews
 Focus groups
 Tests
 Records & report studies
 Work samples
 METHODS OF TRAINING
 Cognitive methods are more of giving
theoretical training to the trainees.

 Behavioral methods are more of giving

practical training to the trainees
 VARIOUS METHODS IN COGNITIVE
APPROACH 
 LECTURERS
 DEMONSTRATIONS
 DISCUSSIONS
 COMPUTER BASED TRAINING (CBT)
 INTELLEGENT TUTORIAL SYSTEM(ITS)
 PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION (PI)
 VIRTUAL REALITY
 VARIOUS METHODS IN
BEHAVIORAL APPROACH
 GAMES AND SIMULATIONS
 BEHAVIOR-MODELING
 BUSINESS GAMES
 CASE STUDIES
 EQUIPMENT STIMULATORS
 IN-BASKET TECHNIQUE
 ROLE PLAYS
 MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT 

 The more future oriented method and more

concerned with education of the employees.

 To become a better performer by education

implies that management development
activities attempt to instill sound reasoning
processes.
 ON THE JOB TRAINING
On-the-job training is a type of learning process
that usually occurs in an actual work environment
i.e. an employee will be learning the new job roles
and responsibilities while undergoing this training.

 COACHING

 MENTORING

 JOB ROTATION

 JOB INSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE (JIT)

 OFF THE JOB TRAINING
Off-the-job training is a type of learning process
that usually occurs out of an actual work
environment

 SENSITIVITY TRAINING

 TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS

 STRAIGHT LECTURES/ LECTURES

 SIMULATION EXERCISES
 TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS
 Imparts new skills
 Inculcates new ideas, knowledge and
concepts
 Is practical oriented
 Not an information dump
 Aligns the training needs to fulfill the
organizational short and long term goals
 Conducts the post evaluation to ensure the
satisfaction levels to refine the future
training needs
  ISSUES ADDRESSED FOR A
SUCCESSFUL TRAINING PROGRAM

 Place (indoor/outdoor)
 Audio visual aids
 Relevant training materials
 Facilities
 Time schedule
 Non – visual aids
 Trainer